McPheters: Positive Results For Public-Placed Mags

A new study by McPheters & Co. shows that the proprietors of doctor's offices, beauty salons and places with waiting areas for customers find value in the magazines they distribute. Most respondents say the pubs generate substantial readership.

The study is intended to bolster the confidence of media buyers and advertisers in public-place copies, which are often dismissed as "junk circ." Its sponsors include Bonnier Corp., Conde Nast, Hachette Filipacchi, Meredith, Time Inc., BusinessWeek, and the Magazine Publishers of America.

According to McPheters, on average each magazine is read by about 40 individuals per month; the average waiting room has 14 different magazines on display. However, it's unclear how accurate this data is --as it depends largely on the perceptions of the proprietors surveyed, rather than quantitative tracking of actual magazine use in public places.

A separate research initiative from Mediamark Research and Intelligence, announced earlier this month, aims to produce these kinds of quantitative results by placing radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in magazines in public places.

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The MRI study will investigate whether RFID technology can produce accurate results by registering the movements of readers who pick up a magazine in a public place. Depending on the accuracy of these measurements, MRI may also be able to determine whether readers looked at a specific ad in a magazine or not.

Magazine publishers that rely on public-place distribution are facing competition from expanding place-based video networks that are edging onto their turf. A new place-based video network created by Creative Marketing and Media Solutions is set to go live in the waiting rooms of 200 dental offices nationwide by the end of 2007, with plans to add an additional 1,200 in 2008.

Healium, a video network serving waiting rooms in doctors' offices with CBS content, aims to reach 120,000 medical practices by the end of 2008, delivering 3 million viewers per month.

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